Progress

[Econoline]

[Bicycle Bill]

The only thing I'm thinking is that if anything happens to those screens — power failure, short circuit, whatever — anything being displayed disappears and they are totally, completely, royally fucked.

Compare that to Apollo 4 — if one gauge goes haywire, starts displaying false info, or otherwise malfunctions, the others would still be there and viewable.  The same with the space shuttle, although the concept of the 'glass cockpit' is already starting to creep in.

Redundancy — for when pulling over and waiting for road service isn't an option.

-"BB"-

[MajGenl.Meade]

Why did Apollo 4 have a bologna sandwich?

[No Greater Fool]

They were out of ham?

[Joe Guy]

The only thing I'm thinking is that if anything happens to those screens — power failure, short circuit, whatever — anything being displayed disappears and they are totally, completely, royally fucked.

That's why each astronaut carries an iPhone as a backup.

[Long Run]

This can be a problem with technology replacing tried and true methods. For example, the move to digitized patient records sounds good, but it replaces a classic layers of swiss cheese redundancy system that greatly limited mistakes based on inadequate charting. Now there is just one centralized system, though you do have to give your date of birth to every person you come into contact with during a visit to the physician.

[ex-khobar Andy]

Then of course you have the situation where you switch with great fanfare from a paper based system (with Post Its and highlighter pens and filing cabinets) to a software system with umpteen bells and whistles. And once you have employee acceptance and everyone has abandoned the old ways (can take years) the suppliers no longer support it or do so only on some old outdated platform so you have to run two or even three systems (we once had stuff on Win 3.something and 95 and XP at the same time - I may be misrecalling the versions - backwards compatible is or was a hollow laughter-inducing concept) and it was all part of the Full Employment for IT Guys Act. But we all survived . . .

[Long Run]

all part of the Full Employment for IT Guys Act.

Don't even get me going on the first rule of programming -- keep programming. That's how we have 1994 Word and Excel hit the top of the curve for development (i.e., they had successfully borrowed everything worth taking from Word Perfect and Lotus), but they keep changing things so that programmers have something to do. For 99% of the users, nothing useful has been added to those program for many, many years (same with many other programs), but we have to keep relearning them so IT Guys have work.

[Big RR]

That's why each astronaut carries an iPhone as a backup.

Good so long as the router works; but what happens when it breaks down (mine has at home).

[Joe Guy]

That's why each astronaut carries an iPhone as a backup.

Good so long as the router works; but what happens when it breaks down (mine has at home).

Then the astronaut switches his iPhone over to wireless instead of trying to save money by using the spaceship's router...

[Big RR]

They need orbiting cell towers first. Maybe they're working on them.

[Joe Guy]

They need orbiting cell towers first. Maybe they're working on them.

They could probably connect to a GPS satellite with a cell phone. Then at least they could get directions for returning home and view Google Earth.

[Long Run]

Or, they could just pack a Thomas Guide (like the one in the back of my car).

[Joe Guy]

I just happen to have a copy of the Thomas Guide for astronauts:

[Bicycle Bill]

One of the first rules for pilots ... always make sure the number of successful landings equal the number of successful takeoffs.

-"BB"-